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English
Series:
Part 33 of Bye Bye Birdy
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Published:
2014-10-20
Completed:
2014-11-01
Words:
3,017
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13/13
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12 Days of Halloween

Summary:

On the first day of Halloween, Jack Frost gave to me...

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

On the first day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... one creepy owl staring spookily.

The hair's on the back of Pitch's neck suddenly stood straight up with a wave of unease.

He was being watched.

Lowering his book, Pitch slowly looked to the right to find Jack's owl was staring right back at him, large eyes glittering with magic.

The pair quietly eyed each other for a long, unblinking moment until Pitch slowly offered the creature his glass of wine.

It was fascinating to watch the wine travel down the invisible throat and into the belly, looking rather like a ball of blood in the crystal clear form.

And he had to wonder, where did all the food the owl ate, or drank, GO afterwards?

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

On the second day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... two annoying fairies.

Toothiana's wings never stopped moving, flittering her around the room and making Pitch feel like his home had been invaded with a beehive. A secret beehive no one could see and only hear.

"And since Jack thought that since you might be getting lonely lately with all his running around I promised to stop by and say hi and Babytooth came along because, well more like she came and I followed because she knows the way, but she wanted to come along anyways because Halloween is coming and she's been invited to a Halloween party and wanted to ask you for ideas but nothing TOO scary because she shouldn't frighten all the other fairies..."

While Pitch considered sticking his fingers in his ears, he knew it was likely to be taken badly.

"Maybe something with glitter? I never considered the appeal of glitter until Jack brought it up with his little pranks on Aster but there's just something so -fun- about it all, and pretty!-..."

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

On the third day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... three notes from Aster.

Pitch smirked at the latest letter asking him to get his child under control before Aster permanently dyed him head to toe in the most unnaturally eye-searing colors possible.

As if Jack would find that a punishment.

And why should Pitch care if Jack was constantly raiding Aster's chocolate stash? Not like the rabbit could eat it all himself, not without some extreme body modifications that would only horrify any believers who saw him.

Jack was, in fact, rescuing Aster's reputation by stealing his chocolates.

Aster should be THANKING Pitch for encouraging Jack's behavior.

Ah well, he was only a rabbit after all and should be forgiven for his ignorance.

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

On the fourth day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... four frozen nightmares.

Pitch studied the iced-over mares, holding his chin in one hand. He'd come home to find this little display of art in his Great Hall, and actually.. it was kind of pretty to have the sparkly white sand in the midst of all the black stone and iron cages. Even if a bit odd.

The lead mare of the little tableau was the most peculiar, front legs straight but the back legs almost sitting down as if she'd tried to stop really fast, only to get frozen in place.

The second mare was reaching forward to touch the first one's hip and had also been frozen over with ice. Same with the third and the fourth and Pitch could just see it becoming one long congo-line of black horses as the night passed.

He wondered how many would become stuck before the Nightmares wised up.

Pitch was very careful not to let any part of his robe brush the horses as he wandered past them, shaking his head. Maybe this would teach the horses to not be so curious.

Chapter 5

Chapter Text


On the fifth day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... five stolen moonbeams.

Pitch was blinded by the light, hand coming up to shield his eyes, and promptly tripped over the rope strung up across the walkway.

"JACK!"

"Whoops, my bad. Sorry Pitch, gimme a moment.. there we go."

Cautiously parting his fingers, the Boogeyman gave the boy a dirty look. "What, may I ask, are you doing?"

Ropes and mirrors and tiny silver cages were put up higgley-piggley all around the cavern. True, it was one of the smaller caverns and one of the few that opened up directly to the sky, but that just meant Jack had been able to clutter up the entire place with ease.

Jack looked up and down and to the side and did not look like he wanted to answer the question at all, all the while hiding a tiny silver birdcage behind his back. That it was glowing brightly made that a little hard, plus there were four more sitting at Jack's feet but covered with a cloth.

"...capturing Moonbeams."

"Why?"

"...cause I thought it'd be brighter than just some candles in the library."

Pitch tried not to look too revolted, biting back a few choice words about the Man in the Moon's own light in HIS precious library. "...just make sure to clean up after yourself."

It was the thought BEHIND the gift that he should appreciate. He could always try to loose the lights later. Maybe with a sledgehammer.

Yes, that would be nice.

Chapter 6

Chapter Text

On the sixth day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... six pounds of candy.

Chair cushions should never go crunch when you sat down on them. Pitch stood and eyed the seat of his favorite chair, lifting it up to see what on earth...

There was candy hidden in his chair.

Not a very good hiding place considering..

He picked up a broken lollipop by the bent stick and watched the rainbow swirled sweet crumble into pieces. Bubblegum in cheerful yellow wrappers, bite-sized bits of chocolate, gummy spiders...

"Wait! Wait wait wait!"

The lollipop was snatched from his hand and the seat cushion slammed back over the hoard of sweets. Jack grinned up at him, hair sticking in odd directions and smears of glitter covering his black hoody. "It's not ready! They haven't found all the clues!"

"Excuse me?"

"The scavenger hunt! I hid all the candy and where is the last place they'd look then in your chair? I made clues and prizes and after we eat all the candy we're gunna plan our costumes for the party!"

"Party?"

"Yeah, and we have a LOT of things to do so we needed a break and what better break than a candy hunt before really buckling down? See you later!"

Since stolen candy tasted the best, especially twice-stolen candy, that was how Pitch found himself sprawled out on Jack's beloved Couch with a lollipop in his mouth and book in hand. Occasionally he'd rummage under the cushion for another chocolate. Not a bad way to spend the day, no?

Chapter 7

Chapter Text

On the seventh day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... seven swans a'screaming.

Jack and a handful of his 'Sister Swans' had decided to go investigate the dining room and the... thing.. that lurked high above. It was almost Halloween after all, and what better way to honor the holiday than to go poke at the scariest thing Jack could think of while being reasonably certain it wouldn't kill them all?

Just sort of... traumatize.

A lot.

One moment Pitch had been enjoying a quiet fire and handful of chocolate, then the next moment The Couch and his lap were full of screaming girls of various sizes as the flock fled from the... thing... that lurked in the dining room . Jack too, though he was sitting on the back of The Couch with a firm grip on the man's head.

Thankfully, because of his long years with Jack, Pitch found it fairly easy to soothe them all with cocoa, fairytales, and thick fluffy blankets. Finding himself watching over a flock of young girls snoozing in front of the warm fire, Pitch wondered where his life had taken a turn for the bizarre... and was fairly certain it started with the little pest who had jammed himself in the (now candy free) space at Pitch's side.

"Read to me!"

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

On the eighth day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... Eight clanking cages.

The iron cages that decorated the Great Hall were massive in size and weighed tons, so it was to be expected that when one hit the solid rock floor it would do so in a spectacularly loud explosion of noise.

Even the Nightmares fled the area because.. wow.

Kitty latched onto Jack's arm with the strength of her ancestors and would not be budged as Hollow stood in front of them protectively. Iron bars and bolts and chain links scattered to the far corners of the Great Hall while even more cages high up swung about wildly and threatening to join their fallen brother.

"...I chalk this up to one really, really bad idea." Hollow decided, lowering his arms carefully and adjusting his Pikachu mask.

"Iunno, it's a kinda pretty effect," as Jack tried to shake her off but Kitty just dug her claws into the fabric of his hoody.

"I'm amazed he only took down ONE cage, and not all eight," giving up on getting his arm back, Jack craned his head back to eye their prize in in all his brightly glowing (and pissed off) glory.

"And I thought the magic light was a pretty neat present, but now you've gone and upped it up by getting the actual Nightlight!"

Hollow held out his fist to Jack who promptly 'fistbumped' it.

"MY question is," asked the little Kitsune, "is how are you going to hide him from Pitch?"

The trio studied the wildly swinging cages.

"...I have an idea."

Chapter 9

Chapter Text

On the ninth day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... nine stolen magic books.

Pitch ran a finger down the spine of the book, frowning at it.

This wasn't his. He'd known if he'd had such a rare copy of 'Covering Your Magical Footsteps with Flair and Ease'.

And right next to that was an equally rare 'Illustrious Illusions, Illustrated.'

In fact, there was a whole row of magic books Pitch had never seen before, each one about using magic to hide things.

Obviously, Jack was up to something and trying to hide it. There was no other culprit.

Pitch pulled the book off the shelf, grimacing at the chocolate fingerprint on the cover.

So..

Find out what Jack was hiding and create trust issues, or wait for Jack to come to him about it and hope it wasn't anything bad that would explode in their faces.

Decisions, decisions.

Chapter 10

Chapter Text

On the tenth day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... ten elves decorating.

Jack upended the second pet-carrier and shook the elves loose. Doing a quick head count, "one, two, three.. four five six. Seven.. Eight! Nine aaaaand ten. Great! Everyone alive? Good! Let's get to work guys! Just make sure to stay out of Pitch's sight."

Jack beamed at the elves. The elves stared back. Each one had a number painted on their forehead with black paint.

"Sooo... go decorate! Hop to it!"

The elves looked at each other.

"....right. You've never decorated for Halloween before. Okay so this is what we'll do..."

Jack had bags and bags of cobwebs, handfuls of fake spiders, plastic eyeballs that glowed in the dark, bats and ghosts that screamed blue murder when someone walked by, candy bowls that tried to grab hands that reached inside, and hundreds of little electric candles that ran on batteries.

Jack very carefully did not look up at the Thing That Wasn't There Lurking Above as he spread out the goodies on the long dining table.

"This'll be fun!"

Chapter 11

Chapter Text

On the eleventh day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me... Eleven Warning Signs.

It was so cute how Jack thought he was being sneaky.

"Hey Pitch, if you were dumped on a deserted island, and you could only have one dessert on the island with you, what would you pick?"

Or

"Ever think of how you'd feel about having more people around? Not that you'd ever get bored with ME around, but just curious..."

And the best one

"Are the invitations that North sends every year proper in the written etiquette or would you change the wording? 'cause I know it's rude that he sends ME invitations and not YOU, but is the rest of it okay? Do we have any books on how to write invitations? Not that.. uhh.. I really need to know of course, just curious. 'cause I like to know things."

Ahhhh Jack, Jack, Jack...

It wasn't hard to figure out what the boy was planning, and Pitch couldn't help but amuse himself with his own little hints about not being around on Halloween. Maybe go visit La Calavera in her home town.

Watching Jack panic without trying to look like he was panicking was suitable revenge for all the pranks over the years.

Chapter 12

Chapter Text

On the Twelfth Day of Halloween Jack Frost gave to me… 12 friendly faces.

Pitch had never stopped to think about just how many people he was on good terms with these days.

He could list the many beings he’d greet with a sneer, could count the ones he’d not even bother to acknowledge the presence of.

But to have a party populated by people he was actually happy to see? That was just plain bizarre. And… he could get used to it.

Taking the head of the table, his dear friend La Calavera was seated at his right hand, and they shared a bottle of wine with Samhain and Sam’s husband the Headless Horseman. Headly was wearing a brand new head, freshly carved that morning.

Also at the table was Death, Sandy, and Slender Man, playing poker. That was amusing all on its own as Death had the perfect expressionless face while Sandy was far too expressive. And Slender Man.. well, he had no idea what he was doing.

Baby Tooth had shown up earlier with Sandy, zipping over to poke Pitch in the nose with her tiny black and gold sword. It matched her carefully blackened feathers and slender gold ring around her neck, and she quite stole the show for a while as Samhain and La Calavera cooed over the tiny Cavity Fairy. Eventually though she zoomed off to find the rest of the children.

Hollow had ditched his parents on arrival, Kitty and Grudge had barely given their greetings to Pitch before Jack had snatched them up. Clearly they were all up to no good, but…

It was still an enjoyable evening. It was.. fun. Pitch could gently flirt with his Lady Friend, exchange embarrassing stories of the boys with Samhain and Headley, and place bets on how many cards Sandy had hidden up his sleeves.

His last guest to arrive, and quite late, was Seraphina. It COULD have been awkward to have his Daughter and his.. girlfriend?... in the same room together, but too many bottles of wine had been opened for Pitch to even consider it.

“Seraphina! Come sit, we’ve just started a new bottle and we’re watching the card sharks teach Slendy how to bluff.”

“I look forward to it, but first I might respectfully request to speak with Jack, so that I might wring his little neck." Foot tapping on the floor, Mother Nature looked less than pleased.

First placing a kiss to the back of Calavera's hand, Pitch took his leave of the group. He allowed himself a moment of pride at being able to stand without wavering.

There had been a lot of wine.

Slinging an arm over Seraphina's shoulders, Pitch happily led her off. "What has my clever boy done now? They would be in the Great Hall I suppose, they like to play there."

The dining room was not far from the Great Hall, and already there was an oddness to the little bit of light Pitch allowed in his home. And there was laughter. The evil laughter of children having far too much fun and Pitch knew, he KNEW, that was why Seraphina was here.

Seraphina rolled her eyes. “That little idiot you claim as a son has abducted someone very important to Manny, and the Tzar is making my life very difficult because of it. I must insist he be.. set… free…”

It was like a tiny rave in the Great Hall, the four gleeful children and tiny fairy were decked out with glow-sticks at their necks and wrists and waved about in the air. The light was a bright, flickering thing that gave the room an awesome strobe effect, and it all originated from the pale figure still locked in a cage.

Pitch was cheerfully drunk, but Nightlight was downright –hammered- thanks to the veritable mountain of Pumpkin Beer bottles. They hadn’t wanted him to feel left out of the party it seemed.

Seraphina’s left eye suddenly developed a tic.

Pitch grinned toothily and gave them a thumbs up.

He was so proud.

Chapter 13

Chapter Text

Bonus Chapter - The Hangover.

Pitch nursed his headache with a tall iced tea, large pair of black sunglasses on his face. La Calavera had found them a cozy little spot up on someone's balcony to sit and relax while down below people partied in the sunny courtyard.

Jack was down there playing with the ghostly children, all out and about visiting their families and celebrating with them. La Calavera herself had done Jack's facepaint, AND had given him his very own sugar skull. It had his name on it! And it was glittery! Though he wasn't actually supposed to eat it, it was awesome!

Pitch tried not to cringe as the band started up, forcing himself to sit up straighter and not look so miserable. It wasn't THAT bad. Not with La Calavera was looking so lovely today. Her makeup was flawless, her dress a bright red and lush with black lace, colorful flowers in her hair... Lovely.

Completely worth the headache.

And not having to deal with Nightlight. That was allllllll Seraphina's problem.

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